A Link to the Heart Fading from Existence
by Jet Set Radio Yoyo
Summary: When Mickey suddenly collapses, Oswald must go on an epic journey of his own to save his little brother. However, Mickey's time is running out. Will Oswald be able to find a way to to save him in time? Takes place two months after Epic Mickey.
1. Chapter 1 Collapsed

**A Link to the Heart Fading from Existence**

**Ch.1-Collapsed**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Epic Mickey.**

**This fanfic was inspired by a picture that I had seen on deviantART. The picture was drawn by Aqua-Melody101 and the picture was called Collapsed. Aqua-Melody101 is also the one is helping me with this fic, she has given me so many wonderful ideas for this fanfic. This fanfic would not be possible without her help so I want to give her a big thank you.**

Two months, that's how long it had been since the Blot had been defeated and Mickey had gone back to the real world. It had also been two months since Oswald had been able to finally get rid of his hatred for the mouse. No longer was Mickey a thing of hatred for Oswald and Oswald could actually say the mouse's name without anger in his voice. Oswald could tell the world that Mickey Mouse was his little brother without envy for his fame and without hatred in his heart. Mickey had long since repaired the damages that he had inadvertently caused when he accidently created the Blot and Mickey had bought back Oswald's darling Ortensia back from being a petrified statue. Mickey had also helped out many of the citizens of the Wasteland with their own problems be they big or small.

Mickey had helped make Horace Horsecollar's detective agency the best of the best in the Wasteland and Mickey had saved many of the Gremlins from being trapped forever in cages of glass and steel. Yes, Mickey had done many things for the Wasteland, but nothing could compare to Mickey doing something that many of the toons thought was impossible and that thing was giving many of the toons the one thing that they had been missing, a heart. It was surprising really, no one was expecting to get a heart not even Oswald was expecting it. Although, Oswald should have expected something when Mickey would always tell him that he would get a surprise soon during their weekly talks. The weekly talks where accomplished by using the mirror in Mickey's room and the mirror on Mean Street. For some reason, the two mirrors had gained a connection to each other that allowed Mickey and Oswald to talk to each other. The only thing needed to make the mirrors work was to have both Oswald and Mickey standing in front of the mirrors and boom you had a way to communicate to the Wasteland and vice versa.

It was a little surprising to learn that they could talk to each other by using the mirror, but it was most certainly not a bad thing. The brothers decided to stay in contact with each other by using the mirror and they decided that they would talk to each other every Saturday. Oswald would tell Mickey how things were going in the Wasteland and Mickey would tell him how everything was going on in the real world. The mirror also gave the citizens of Wasteland a way to talk to Mickey as well and it gave the Bunny Children a way to talk to their favorite (and only) uncle. However, a month after the weekly visits began Mickey started acting oddly. Mickey was almost always grinning and while Oswald had quickly learned that Mickey was a rather cheerful person (mouse) Mickey would usually have a happy smile on his face, not a grin that just seemed to yell out 'I know something that you don't know!'

Of course whenever Oswald asked Mickey why he was acting so oddly Mickey would just smile and say it's a secret. Oswald would always ask why Mickey was acting so oddly at least once during their weekly meetings, but Mickey would never give him a straight answer. Mickey would just smile and say "It's a secret!" or "It's a surprise!" Needless to say, Oswald never got a straight answer out of his brother, but he did notice as the weeks passed by that Mickey seemed to be getting more and more excited about something. Oswald ended up finding out just what that something was when a total of two months had passed. Oswald remembered waking up early on Saturday morning like he always did only to feel a strange yet familiar weight in his chest. Oswald placed his hand over his chest only to feel the thump thump thumping that only a heart could create. Oswald was shocked, but in all honesty could you blame him? Oswald had lost his heart a long long time ago, but right now he was standing there with a heart thumping in his chest full of the warmth that a toon felt when they where remembered by people. It could not be possible, it had to be a dream, a wonderful dream that he would soon wake up from a feel sorrow about.

However, a quick (and rather painful) self-inflicted pinch to the arm proved to Oswald that he was not dreaming, he really did have a heart beating in his chest and this made Oswald the happiest Rabbit in the Wasteland. The reality of the situation just became all so much more dreamlike and happy when his darling Ortensia came up to him with a smile on her lovely face and a hand over her chest before she said "Oswald, I have a heart again!" Oswald placed his ear over her chest as if to confirm her words only to grin when he heard her gentle heartbeats. To make the moment all so much sweeter, Oswald's children (all 420 of them) came jumping up to their parents all while complaining about a 'thumping' in their chests. It was quickly reveled that Oswald and Ortensia's children had hearts and they weren't the only ones. As Oswald and his family quickly made their way to the two way mirror that allowed them to talk to Mickey, they ran into one cartoon character after another and said cartoon characters all had bright smiles on their faces as they revealed that they too had gained a heart of their own.

The toons with newly received hearts consisted of Gus and a handful of Gremlins, Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar, and a couple of various other toons. No one knew how or why they had hearts, they just knew they had them and they could not be happier about it. Oswald however started to get a sinking suspension that Mickey may know why they had had seemed to have just gained hearts out of the blue. After all, Mickey had been going on about some sort of surprise so maybe this was the surprise he was talking about. However, if this was the surprise Mickey had been going on about than Oswald had to wonder just how Mickey was able to pull this off. Well, the only way to ask Mickey so with this thought in mind Oswald, accompanied by his family and the toons who had just gained hearts of their, quickly made his way to the mirror. Once they got to the mirror, the magic mirror reacted to Oswald's presence and worked its magic and within a blink of an eye the toons gathered around the magic mirror of Mean Street where able to see Mickey's room with the said mouse sitting in front of the mirror reading 'Throe the Looking Glass'. It was not to surprising to see the mouse there at the mirror, after all the mirror only worked when Mickey and Oswald where standing in front of their respective mirrors.

No, what surprised the toons was when Mickey looked up from his book and at the toons before he smiled and asked "So do you guys have your hearts yet?" Needless, to say the toons who had just gained their hearts where extremely confused. Just how in the world did Mickey know about them gaining hearts? Of course when they voiced this question Mickey just laughed and smiled at them before he finally explained how he know about them getting hearts and just what it was that Mickey had been keeping a secret from them. It seemed that a couple of days after Mickey had returned from the Wasteland Mickey told everyone at the Disney Company about his adventure. At first they were a little reluctant to believe the mouse, but they really didn't think Mickey would lie to them and it was really the only thing they had to explain why Mickey had been gone for so long and besides one always had to expect the unexpected when it came to Mickey Mouse and this was just one of those things that seemed to reinforce that little rule.

Strangely enough, the Disney Company had been looking for a way to bring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit back out to public attention and when they heard Mickey's story they immediately got an idea on how they could bring Oswald back out to the public. Not only that, but Mickey's story also helped them figure out how they could bring back a couple of the other forgotten Disney characters of the past back out into the world again. They decided to make Mickey's adventure in the Wasteland into a video game and they had immediately set to work on making the game as soon as they could. The end result of all of their hard work was a game that they proudly called 'Epic Mickey'. Oswald had immediately questioned why they called the game that, but Mickey quickly explained that he had nothing to do with naming the game.

Personally Oswald thought the game should be called 'Epic Oswald', but Oswald was just happy to know that thinks to the game he, his family, and many of the toons of the Wasteland could now go back to the Real World after so many years of being stuck in the Wasteland. The toons could officially go back to the Real World in two weeks, so the toons wasted no time in getting ready to leave the Wastelands and go back to the Real World where they truly belonged. However, what Oswald, Mickey, and the rest of the toons did not know was that the happiness that they had now would be completely destroyed and for a certain pair of brothers their worlds where going to be turned upside down by the very thing that they had thought they would never see again…

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It was a nice beautiful Saturday morning in the Wasteland and Oswald was in the best moods of his life. Today would be the last day that Oswald would talk to Mickey through the mirror because next week he and his family would be going to be going to the Real World to stay. The bags where packed, the kids where more than ready to leave , and Oswald had finally found someone to watch over the Wasteland when he was gone. Yes, everything was perfect in the rabbit's life and he did not think anything could get him down. Right now, Oswald was going to the mirror in Mean Street so that he could have one final 'mirror' talk with Mickey. Accompanying him to the mirror where Ortensia, Gus, animatronic Goofy, animatronic Donald, and last but not least animatronic Daisy. The Bunny Children had been left at home, but Ortensia would return to them after she had said hello to her brother-in-law. "It's almost hard to believe that you are all going to go and live in the Real World next week." Daisy said as she walked in step next to Ortensia. "Oh, are you going to miss us when we are gone?" Ortensia asked as she looked at the robotic duck.

Daisy just smiled before she said "Well of course I am going to miss you, you're my best friend after all!" Oswald just looked over at the female duck before he said "The three of you could come with us you know. You don't have to stay here in the Wasteland." Goofy just gave a goofy like chuckle before he said "That's awfully nice of you to offer to take us with you, but I think it's best if we stay here." The robotic Donald who was walking beside Daisy nodded at what Goofy said before he added in "Yeah, and besides if we leave who is going to help the new rulers of the Wasteland run this place?" Oswald chuckled slightly before he nodded and said "I suppose your right…" Although Oswald had not said it out loud he had to admit that he was going to miss his animatronic pals. They had been his friends since the day they were created and it was going to be slightly sad to leave them behind, but Oswald knew it was probably for the best. For the animatronics, the Wasteland was the only home that they knew and they would probably be better off here than over at the real world.

Oswald was about to think more about this particular subject, but the feeling of Ortensia putting her hand on her shoulder ended up stopping him from diving to deeply into his thoughts. "Come on Oswald we better hurry, we don't want to keep Mickey waiting." Ortensia said as she smiled sweetly at Oswald. Oswald nodded at her before he returned her smile with one of his own before he started to run toward the mirror. The others followed behind Oswald and within a few seconds the rather large group was able to reach the mirror. Once Oswald was in front of the mirror the mirror started to work its magic and within a matter of seconds the mirror immediately showed them Mickey's room. Mickey was already standing in front of his own mirror and when he saw them he gave them all a kind smile before he said "Hey guys, what's new in the Wasteland?" Daisy practically skipped up to the mirror before she said "Well, for one thing Horace is going to get his own TV show here in the Wasteland!" Mickey blinked in surprise before he asked "Horace is getting his own TV show?" Daisy nodded enthusiastically before she practically yelled out "Yes, isn't it great. It seems like Horace's detective agency has gotten so popular that they decided to make a TV show about it. I can't wait until they start making episodes, I just love detective dramas!"

Ortensia rolled her eyes slightly at her friend's excitement before she smiled and said "Before Daisy forgets to tell you, Horace told us to tell you hi." Daisy crossed her arms slightly before she looked over to the side and said "I was going to tell him that eventually..." Ortensia just giggled slightly at this and Mickey just smiled before he said "Can you tell Horace hi for me?" Ortensia just continued to smile as she said "I'll make sure to let him know that his greeting was returned." Mickey nodded slightly at her before he started to cough a little. The gathered friends frowned slightly when they heard Mickey coughing, but it was only Goofy who bothered to ask "Gee Mickey, you still have your cold?" Yes, it seemed Mickey had caught a cold about a week ago, but he had yet to get any better. The others where starting to grow ever so slightly worried about Mickey, but Mickey refused to let the cold bother him and he tried his best to not worry his Wasteland friends and his brother although Oswald had yet to actually vocally say that he was worried . Mickey gave a weak smile before he said "Yeah, I still have my cold but don't worry guys I'll get better soon." Mickey smile grew a bit stronger before he looked over at Gus and asked "Gus, have you found someone who can take your place as the leader of the Gremlins while you are gone?"

Gus nodded slightly before he said "Yes, I'm going to let Apollo take over. He has shown himself more than capable of watching over Gremlin Village and I trust him to keep everyone in line." Mickey smiled at this before he asked "So anything else that I should know about?" Donald grinned before he said rather happily "My tugboat has been fixed and I can now sail it around again!" Mickey looked at Donald in surprise before he said "Really, you where able to fix it? The last time I saw that boat it had been sticking out of a thinner pool in Os Town." The robotic Donald just puffed his chest out with pride before he said "I was able to get the boat out of the lake and I was able to get it fixed all by myself!" That's when Gus cleared his throat and gave Donald a look that seemed to say 'you better fix that sentence of yours or you're going to end up in pieces again.' Donald gulped slightly before he quickly added "With the help of the Gremlins of course!" The gathered toons laughed slightly at this before they heard someone calling for Gus. They all looked over toward the sound of the voice only to see a Gremlin calling for Gus to help him out with the machine that powered up the projectors in the area. Gus turned and looked over at Mickey before he said "I have to go and help him fix the machine, I'll see you again soon Mickey." Gus said before he flew over to the waiting Gremlin.

Once Gus was gone Ortensia clapped her hands together and said "Well, I think it's time that we let Oswald and Mickey talk to each other alone now. Come on everyone let's go!" The three animatronics nodded their heads before they all walked away from the mirror and out of sight with Ortensia following right behind them. Once they were all gone Oswald turned to say something to Mickey, but the sound of Ortensia calling his name ended up stopping him. Oswald turned toward the sound of her voice only to get a big hug and an even bigger kiss from the cat. When Ortensia broke the kiss she smiled at the now blushing Oswald before she said "I almost forgot to give you a good bye kiss. I'll see you back at home soon, ok?" Oswald just nodded mutely as he gave the cat a rather goofy grin. Ortensia just chuckled slightly before she broke the hug and walked away. Oswald watched her walk away in a daze before he was finally snapped out of it by the sound of Mickey chuckling behind him. Oswald turned and looked at his little brother through the mirror before he gave him a slight glare before he mumbled "S-shut up!" Mickey quickly suppressed his laughter before he grinned at his older brother and said "Hey, I didn't say anything. So who did you get to take over the throne when you're gone?" Oswald smirked at this before he said "You really want to know, huh? Well, too bad it's a secret!" Mickey looked slightly disappointed at hearing this before he asked "Come on, why can't you tell me?"

Oswald just continued to smirk before he said "Think of this as revenge for not telling me about the Epic Mickey game." Mickey frowned slight at that before he asked "You will tell me eventually, right?" Oswald just smiled a bit when he heard Mickey say that before he said "I will tell you… Eventually…" Mickey just sighed and rolled his eyes before he started coughing again, only this time his coughing was much stronger. Not only was his coughing stronger but Mickey could feel what felt like a dull ache in his heart and for some reason Mickey started to feel kind of dizzy. Oswald frowned slightly as he watched his little brother cough, but his frown only grow larger when he noticed Mickey was swaying slightly where he stood. "Mickey, are you ok?" Oswald asked as he looked at his little brother. Mickey just shook his head weakly before he asked "Why, are you worried about me?" Oswald immediately crossed his arms and said "No, I'm not worried about you! I'm not worried about you at all!" Mickey just smiled weakly before he said "Sure you're not worried, whatever you say Oswald." Mickey than started to cough again and Oswald just continued to frown.

However, as Mickey continued coughing Oswald noticed something. Every few minutes Oswald would see what looked like small dips of what could almost be described as ink come dripping up into the air only to disappear from sight just as fast as it has appeared. At first Oswald thought he was imagining things, but the more he watched Mickey the more he saw it until finally Oswald knew that he was not just imagining things. It actually reminded Oswald of the time when Mickey was in the Wasteland. Whenever Mickey used a lot of thinner Mickey would always start dipping ink, from what Oswald had gathered Mickey did that because of how the Blot had become a small part of him when he entered the Wasteland world so whenever he used a lot of thinner or whenever Mickey would make a rather bad (read: mischievous) decision he would start dripping ink in a way that was sort of similar to how the Blot dripped ink, Mickey possibly did this to show how the Blot was a part of him. However, Mickey should have gotten rid of the Blot that became a part of him when he went back to his world.

Yet there was Mickey coughing his lungs out as he started to drip the smallest amount of ink. Oswald was starting to get worried, Mickey dripping ink was not a good thing it was not a good thing at all. Oswald also started to notice with increasing alarm that Mickey was starting to sway a bit more than he was earlier and his coughing just seemed to grow harsher. "Mickey, are you going to be ok?" Oswald asked slowly. Oswald watched as Mickey quickly shook his head no before he finally stopped coughing, but he still continued to sway side to side like a tree that was about to tip over. Mickey then looked at Oswald with a rather pathetic look on his face before he said in a week tone "Oswald, my heart hurts."

And before Oswald could even say a world Mickey collapsed right where he stood, the ink still dripping off of him in tiny amounts. Oswald immediately started to bang his hands on the glass as he shouted "Mickey? Mickey, get up! Don't just lay there get up, please!" Mickey however showed no signs of hearing his older brother's cries. He just continued to lie there as the small amounts of ink slowly dripped off of him and went up into the air before disappearing. Oswald continued to yell at Mickey and beg for him to get up or at least open his eyes, but Oswald's pleas where in vain. Oswald was dimly aware that the townspeople of Mean Street where openly staring at him, but he did not care he just wanted his baby brother to open his eyes. Oswald continued to bash his fists against the glass as if hoping that it would allow him to go throug it and to his fallen brother, but this unfortunately was not to be. No instead it seemed like the mirror decided to work against him because in the blink of an eye the reflection of the mirror changed from showing Oswald his fallen brother to just showing him a reflection of his own terrified face…..

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**Ok, so that's chapter 1. I promise that will do my best to write a good fanfic for you all so please review and don't flame. I will try and get the next chapter out as soon a possible.**


	2. Chapter 2 Trip to the Real World

**A Link to the Heart Fading from Existence**

**Ch.2- A Trip to the Real World**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Epic Mickey.**

* * *

Oswald was not too sure on how long he had stood there in front of the mirror staring blankly at his own reflection, it was probably for only a few minutes but to Oswald it had felt like days. On the outside Oswald's expression was rather unreadable, but on the inside the rabbit was in panic mode and he was mentally asking himself one question after another. Why was Mickey dripping ink? Why did Mickey suddenly collapse like that and why did Mickey say that his heart hurt? Oswald didn't have an answer to any of these questions and that fact just made Oswald panic all so much more. The rabbit was slightly aware of the fact that quite a few of the Mean Street residents had gathered around him to try and figure out just what was wrong with him, but Oswald could not bring himself to care. No, Oswald just continued to stare at his reflection as if it would be able to answer his unanswered questions. It was only when Oswald felt someone place his hand on his shoulder did he finally snap out of his daze. Oswald quickly turned around and looked at who had placed their hand on his shoulder only to see Gus floating there with a worried look on his face.

"Oswald are you ok? I could hear you yelling all the way over at the projectors." Gus said in a concerned tone of voice. Oswald said nothing to this he just grabbed Gus' hand and started to drag him away from the mirror and the crowd and over to the projectors. Once they were at the projectors Oswald let go of Gus' hand and before he looked the gremlin right into the eye and said "Mickey collapsed." Gus blinked a couple of times before he asked "Mickey collapsed? I didn't think his cold was that bad…" Oswald shook his head slightly before he said "I don't think it was because of the common cold. Before Mickey collapsed he started dripping ink and he said his heart hurt." When Gus heard Oswald say that he got a rather serious look on his face before he said "I think I may know what is wrong with him, but I would need to see him to be sure…" Oswald crossed his arms and said "Well good luck with that. After Mickey collapsed the mirror stopped working and it would not let me see him anymore." Gus got a thoughtful look on his face before he said "We could get there throe the Real World travel agency…."

Ah yes, the Real World travel agency Oswald had almost forgotten about that place due to his mind being in panic mode. As the name suggested the Real World travel agency allowed toons had regained their hearts to travel into the real world by projectors. The travel agency had actually been closed for a long time due to the Blot, but once the Blot had been defeated the place was able to open back up and use the projectors to travel to the Real World. Now one would think that would mean anyone could use the projectors to travel to the real world, but this was not true. No you had to have a heart in order to use the projectors, if you didn't have a heart than that would mean the projectors would not let you throe. No one knew why the projectors did this not even the workers at the travel agency knew. It was just one of those life mysteries that the toons of the Wasteland figured they would never solve. However, since Oswald and Gus now had hearts that meant that they could use the projectors and that means they could go the Real World and get to Mickey. Oswald grinned at the thought, but the grin was quickly replaced by a frown when he realized that he should probably tell Ortensia where he was going and that Mickey collapsed.

Ortensia would no doubt go into worry mode when she hears about Mickey collapsing, but she needed to know and the animatronics needed to know too. "Come on, we should tell Ortensia and the others about Mickey before we leave for the Real World." Oswald said before he quickly made his way to the projector that would lead him to Os Town. Gus said nothing to this he just followed the rabbit without making sound. It did not take long for Oswald and Gus to get to Os Town, the two toons had traveled throe the projector enough times that they could practically go throe it blindfolded. Once the two toons had gotten to Os town they were immediately greeted by Ortensia, the animatronics, and the bunny children. At first they were smiling, but when they saw the frowns on the two toons faces the smiles immediately vanished. "Oswald, did something bad happen?" Ortensia asked quietly. "Mickey collapsed when I was talking to him." Oswald answered.

"Gosh I knew Mickey was sick, but I didn't think he was that sick." Goofy said. "I don't think Mickey passed out because of the average cold. When Mickey passed out he started dripping ink and he said his heart hurt." Oswald explained. "Dripping ink? Heart hurting? You don't think it has anything to do with the Blot do you?" Daisy asked. Gus crossed his arms before he said "I think it may have something to with the Blot, but I need to see Mickey to be sure." Oswald was about to say something to this, but the sound of his bunny children calling him ended up stopping him. Oswald looked down at the bunny children who had gathered around them only to see them all frowning and looking worried. The youngest bunny child hopped forward until it was standing in front of Oswald before it looked Oswald right in the eyes and asked "Uncle Mickey's sick?" Oswald just gave the bunny child a week smile before he said "Yes, Uncle Mickey is very sick but I'll go visit him with Gus and see just how sick he is."

Ortensia took a step toward Oswald before she said "Oswald if you're going to see Mickey than I'm coming with you." Right after she said that Donald started to nod his head before he said "Yeah and we are going too! Mickey's our friend and we want to see him!" Oswald was about to argue with them and say that they should just stay where, but he decided against it. Donald was stubborn and once he had his mind set on something there was no changing it. The same could be said for Ortensia, she was such a caring person that if she knew someone was hurt or sick she was not going to let anyone stop her from helping them. Oswald also knew that Daisy and Goofy where just as caring as Ortensia and he knew there was no talking them out of it. In all honesty Oswald really didn't have the energy to ague right now he just wanted to check on Mickey and find out just what was wrong with his little brother. "Ok, fine you can all come but who's going to watch the bunny children while we are gone?" Ortensia just smiled and said "I'm sure Clarabelle can watch them for awhile. She is free for today and she did say that she could watch the kids for us if we ever needed to go somewhere for a day." Oswald just sighed before he smiled slightly, leave it to Ortensia to have a plan everything all planed out. "Alright, drop of the kids so we can go ahead and leave for the travel agency." Ortensia just smiled at him before she gathered the children and lead them toward Clarabelle's house. Oswald watched them walk away before he sighed. Something told Oswald that things were going to be busy starting from now…

* * *

It took awhile for Oswald's rather large group to get to the Real World travel agency, but once they had gotten to the building they where rather surprised by what they saw. The Real World travel agency was located in Tomorrow City so they had all expected the place to be rather futuristic and what not and while the outside of the building definitely fit in with the whole entire future setting, but the inside of the building was the complete opposite of the outside of the building. The inside of the building looked rather normal and it actually looked a lot like the lobby of an airport. There was a long role of desks toward the back of the room and there was a sitting area located in a corner in the bottom left of the room. Most of the desks already had toons surrounding them, but the last desk at the very right did not have anyone surrounding it. Giving a shrug of the shoulders Oswald quickly walked over to the desk with the others following quietly after them. When they got to the desk they were a bit disappointed to see that there was no one there. "Great, no one's here. Does this mean we have to wait in line at one of the other desks?" Donald asked as he crossed his arms.

"Well, I don't know if I would say that no one is hear." A mysterious voice said. Everyone started to look around for the source of the voice only to see no one around. They heard someone clear their throat before the mastery voice said "I'm done here on the desk." Everyone looked down only to see a small tone standing on a small pile of books that where on the desk. The small toon looked exactly like Jiminy Cricket, but their where obvious differences between this Jiminy Cricket and the Jiminy Cricket of Pinocchio. This Jiminy Cricket outfit was the same as the other Jiminy Cricket, but everything was in various shades of red. Almost every single part of his outfit was red in color with the only things that were not some shade of red where his white gloves. The cricket gave them all a kind smile before he said "Hello, I'm Jiminy Cricket and I'm one of the many travel agents working here in the Real World Travel Agency. Can I help you all today?"

Goofy scratched his head in confusion before he said "I didn't think Jiminy Cricket was a forgotten cartoon character." Jiminy just continued to smile as he explained "He's not a forgotten cartoon character, I was a rejected Jiminy Cricket character design." Goofy frowned slightly when he heard this before he said "Oh, I'm very sorry for asking." Jiminy just gave Goofy a small smile before he said "It's alright, I get asked that question a lot so it does not bother me anymore." Oswald had a feeling that the question still bothered the cricket, but he wisely decided not to say anything. Toons ended up in the Wasteland all the time because they did not look quite like how their creators wanted them to and this was just yet another example of that. Besides it was not Oswald's business and it was probably something that Jiminy would not want to talk about. Oswald shook his head slightly as if to clear his thoughts before he looked at the cricket and said "We want to go to the Real World right now." Jiminy frowned slightly before he said "You're Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and if I remember right you got reintroduced to the world by the Epic Mickey game." Oswald nodded slightly before he said "That's right…" Jiminy was quite for a few seconds before he said "The toons who got popular from that game are not supposed to be going to the Real World until next week." Oswald frowned at this and was about to tell the cricket just why they wanted to go to the Real World right now, but Ortensia ended up beating him to the punch.

"Please sir, we need to go to the Real World right now. Mickey has collapsed and he is really sick and if we don't go now who knows what will happen to him." Jiminy crossed his arms and got a rather thoughtful look on his face. Oswald frowned slightly thinking that Jiminy would most likely deny their request and Donald started to get all ready to argue with the cricket should he deny them accesses to the Real World. However, before anyone could really do or say anything Jiminy started to smile before he said "Ok, consider me your travel agent then." The toons all blinked a couple of times in surprise before Gus finally asked "You're going to let us go to the Real World without a fight?" Jiminy just smiled before he replied "That I am. Oswald is the king of the Wasteland and Mickey is the one who defeated the Blot and helped save the Wasteland so it would kind of be wrong for me to deny you all service. Besides what kind of toon would I be if I did not help others in need?" The toons all smiled at Jiminy before Oswald said"Thank you Jiminy, this means a lot to me." Jiminy just continue to smile before he said "Don't mention it. Now I should probably tell you how the projector works." Jiminy than pointed toward a door that was located on the wall next to his desk and said "Throe that door is a hallway that leads to all of the different rooms that have projectors in them. The Epic Mickey projector is in the second to the last room at the end of the hall. It should have an Epic Mickey sign hanging from it so you should not have any problem finding it. The projector is all ready for toons to use it and the projector will work just like the other projectors here in the Wasteland so you won't have too many problems getting through it. I should mention that animatronics can't go throe the projectors alone, but if they have someone with a heart go with them than they can get through with no problem. Also, I'll contact someone on the other side of the projector so that they will know that you are coming."

Jiminy than looked at all the gathered toons that where around his desk before he asked "So have any questions, comments, or concerns that you want to voice?" Oswald immediately to this question by saying "We will probably be going back and forth between the Real World and the Wasteland a lot. Is that going to cause any problems for you?" Jiminy shook his head and said "No it won't be a problem. I'll explain everything to my boss and I'm sure he will understand." Gus then asked "You said you would get in contact with someone in the Real World, but just how are you going to do that?" Jiminy just smiled and said "Now that's something I can't reveal. Just trust me when I say that I'll handle everything." Gus looked like he wanted to ask just why they could not tell them, but he seemed to decided against asking and just decided to stay quite. Jiminy then clapped his hands together and said "Well, if that's all of the questions that you have I think you can go ahead and go on to the real world." Oswald nodded at this before he said "He's right, now come on let's go." Oswald then turned away from the desk and walked to the door that Jiminy had pointed at earlier.

The other toons quickly said their goodbyes to Jiminy before they quickly followed after Oswald. Oswald wasted no time getting throe the door and down the hall with the others quickly following after him. After passing one door after another they finally reached the Epic Mickey door. Oswald quickly opened the door and walked in with the other coming into the room right behind him. The room itself was empty with only the lone projector sitting in the middle of the room. The image that was on the projector itself was rather interesting to look at and Oswald could not help but stare at it for a few minutes. The image had Mickey standing there in a battle pose as a rather large amount of ink dripped off of him. Mickey was also holding his paintbrush that had a huge wave of paint coming off of it with images of very familiar places in the Wasteland appearing in the paint. However in the top right corner of the image was Oswald himself. The image most had been the picture that was on the Epic Mickey game case and Oswald could not help but smile a little at the fact that they had put him on the picture as well. However, Oswald was snapped out of his thoughts when he felt Ortensia put her hand on his shoulder.

"Are you ready to jump in?" She asked as she gave Oswald a small smile. Oswald just smiled back at her and nodded before he jumped into the projector. All three of the animatronics followed after him with Gus coming in right behind them and Ortensia herself was the last one to jump in. Once in the projector, the toons where immediately greeted with a mock version of the throne room from Dark Beauty Castle. In the background of the castle they could see a much smaller version of Mad Doctor's heart stealing machine looking around with its robotic eye. "This brings back some old memories…" Gus said softly as he watched the machine look around as it waved about a tiny plunger in its animatronic hand. Oswald could not help but silently think that this most certainly did bring back memories, but Oswald did not have time to take a trip down memory lane. "Come on, let's go. We don't have time to look around. The toons silently nodded their heads in agreement before they quickly followed after the rabbit as he started to run down the path that would lead them to the projector that would take them to the Real World. Getting to the projector was actually very easy; they just had to follow the little hall that was attached to the throne room. The hall lead them to a copy of the castle's entrance and sitting there in the middle of the entrance are was the projector that they needed to get to in order to finally get to the Real World. The toons quickly jumped into the projector without slowing down in the slightest in their running. Once they had jumped throe the projector they ended up jumping right out into the Real World. The Real World projector room looked exactly like the one in the Wateland, but they were not concerned with that.

No instead they where to busy looking at the lone toon who was waiting rather patiently in the room. The toon was a white rabbit wearing red overalls and a blue bowtie that had yellow spots on it. He also had on a pair of yellow gloves and he had a bit of bright orange hair on the top of his head. The rabbit gave them all a rather large smile before he asked "Your Oswald and company, correct?" Oswald just blinked a few times in surprise before he said "That's correct…" The white rabbit's smile just seemed to grow larger before he jumped up a little in excitement and said in a rather energetic voice "Great! Jiminy told me that you where coming here and that I should meet you here when you got here to the Real World. My name is Roger Rabbit and I'm one of the workers here in the Travel Agency! I'm supposed to help you out in any way that I can!" Donald just crossed his arms and looked at the energetic white rabbit before he asked "And just how are you going to help us?" When Roger heard this he just put his hand on his chin and started to think for awhile before his eyes seemed to light up as if he had just figured out just how he could be helpful to them. "Well, do you know how to get to Mickey's house?" Roger asked cheerfully. Oswald looked at his friends and asked "Does anyone know how to get to Mickey's house?" Oswald's friends just shrugged their shoulders before they all shook their heads no.

Oswald looked back the white rabbit before he said "Well, I guess the answer to that question is no. Are you saying that you know where his house is?" Roger just grinned at them before he said "Of course I do! Mickey is a pretty good friend of mine and practically everyone knows where that famous mouse lives!" Roger than started to dig around in his overall pocket before he pulled out a small notebook and a pencil. Roger started to write down something in the notebook before he pulled a piece of paper out of the notebook before he held it out for Oswald to take. Oswald took the paper from the rabbit and looked down at it only to see an address written on it. "That's Mickey's address. You can get a taxi outside and if you tell the driver the address they should be able to take you straight there." Roger explained. Oswald smiled gratefully at Roger before he said "Ok, thank you Roger." Roger just smiled back at him before his eyes widened slightly and he slapped himself on the forehead. "Oh, I almost forgot! One of my jobs where at the travel agency is to exchange your e-tickets for money! They don't use e-tickets as currency here in the Real World after all and you won't be able to use a taxi if you don't have money! Come on, I'll take you to my desk and exchange your e-tickets." Roger than proceeded to walk out of the room and the toons of the Wasteland just looked at each other and shrugged before they followed after the rather energetic bowtie wearing rabbit. Roger quickly lead them to the lobby of the building, which strangely enough looked exactly like the one in the Wasteland before he lead them to his desk which was located in the very middle of the large row of desks.

Once at the desk Roger quickly set to work on exchanging their etickets for money. After they go their money Roger gave them all a large happy smile before he said "Alright, you're all set! Tell Mickey Hi for me when you see him, ok?" Oswald just nodded before he said "Alright, we'll tell Mickey that you said hi." Oswald then turned away from Roger and looked at his friends before he said "Ok, come on lets go to Mickey's house already." They all nodded at him before they followed him out of the building. Once outside, Oswald wasted no time in hailing taxi for them, but it did take awhile for them to get into the taxi considering the fact that their where six of them trying to fit into one small taxi. However, somehow they were all able to fit in the taxi and once they were all in the taxi and buckled up the driver of the vehicle wasted no time in getting them to their destination. All thought the trip the toons of the Wasteland could not help but stare at everything that they passed by in amazement. The town itself was huge and it had be bigger than Meant Street and Os Town put together. It was amazing to see how the Real World had changed since the last time Oswald had been there. There were so many new things to see in the Real World that the toons of the Wasteland where almost overwhelmed by all of the new sights.

However, soon enough the taxi finally got them to Mickey's yellow house and the Oswald quickly paid the driver before he and his friends got out of the cab and quickly ran up to the front door of the house. Daisy tried to open the door only to find that the door was locked. "Well, now what?" Daisy asked as she looked over at everyone else. "You think Mickey may have left a key somewhere outside just in case he himself got locked out of his house?" Goofy asked. Oswald looked around the porch to see if there was any place that Mickey could put a key only to have his eyes land on the welcome mat. Oswald lifted the mat up only to have a shiny key meet his gaze. "Jackpot!" Oswald cried happily as he picked the key up and started to unlock the door. Once the door was unlocked, the toons quickly raced inside before they slammed to door shut behind them. "Ok, where is Mickey's room located?" Gus asked as he looked around the house. Oswald was about to answer, but the sound of barking ended up stopping him. Everyone looked toward the source of the noise only to see a dog come racing down the stairs and straight toward them. The dog stopped running once it had gotten to the toons and started to growl at them. It only took about two seconds for the toons to realize that the dog was none other than Pluto.

Oswald took a couple of steps toward the dog before he said "Hey their boy, I'm Oswald the Lucky Rabbit." Oswald then pointed at his friends who where all standing behind him and said "And the toons behind me are Ortensia, Gus, animtronic Daisy, animatronic Donald, and animatronic Goofy." Oswald gave the growling dog a week smile before he said "We met throe Mickey's mirror, remember?" It was true; Mickey had introduced Pluto to Oswald and the others by using the mirror. Needless to say the first time the dog saw them throe the mirror he had been rather confused, but the dog seemed to have accepted the weirdness of it all after a while. After a few sounds had passed, Pluto finally stopped growling and started to wag his tail a little bit as if to show that he did indeed remember them. Pluto then turned around and climbed back up the stairs. Once Pluto was at the top of the stairs he turned and looked at them all before he barked a few times. "I think he wants us to follow him." Gus said as he looked at the dog. The toons quickly followed the dog the dog up the stairs only to have the dog lead them down the hall and to a closed door. Pluto started to scratch at the door and whine before he looked over at Oswald with a hopeful expression. Oswald slowly opened the door only to have Pluto run right into the room. The toons followed the dog into the room only to find out that Pluto had lead them straight into Mickey's room. They looked around the room only to have their eyes landed on Mickey who was still lying rather limply on top of the fireplace.

Oswald quickly ran over to the fireplace before he climbed up to the top and looked at his little brother. The way that Mickey was laying on top of the fireplace almost made him look like a doll that had been carelessly dropped by its owner. Mickey was breathing was rather week and Oswald could see the small amount of ink drip up into the air. Oswald slowly picked his little brother up only to have Mickey's head roll over slightly so that his head rested on Oswald's shoulder. Oswald slowly worked his way down the fireplace and over to Mickey's bed, all while being careful to not shake Mickey around too much. Once Oswald was at Mickey's bed he gently put his little brother onto the bed before he covered him up with his blankets. The others quickly gathered around the bed and looked down at the passed out mouse only to quickly notice the ink that was dripping off of him. Pluto wined slightly at seeing his owner in such a week state and the others could only gaze at Mickey sadly. Gus stared at Mickey for awhile before he said "This is most definitely the Blot's work." Daisy blinked a few times in disbelief before she said "But I thought Mickey had gotten rid of the Blot part of him when he came back home." Gus just shook his head and said "Well if Mickey is still dripping ink then it's obvious that he has not gotten rid of the Blot part of him." Gus then gave a slight sigh before he said "I have seen this before during the Blot War. Toons that had been attacked by the Blot itself would be alright at first, but then the Blot would slowly start to take over them until they finally became an inky monster. I remember seeing quite a few of them in the Blot itself when Mickey had to fight the thing from the inside to get his heart back and to save me and Oswald."

Oswald winced slightly at the memory, he remembered seeing those ink monsters alright and Oswald wished that he could forget it. It was terrifying to see what kind of mindless monsters that those unlucky innocent toons had become, but what was even more terrifying then seeing the monsters was the fact that once a toon became a Blot monster they could never turn back to normal. Thinking of that now Oswald started to panic again. If the Blot was slowly taking over Mickey then that would mean that Mickey was in danger of becoming some mindless puppet for the Blot. That also meant that Blot could return and cause pain and misery for people once again. Oswald was about to think more about it, but he ended up being snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Gus say something that just added to Oswald's inner terror. "The Blot is probably trying to take over Mickey's heart. If it get's Mickey's heart then it can come back and cause problems for us once again." Oswald quickly snapped his attention over to Gus and said "Well then we are just going to have to stop the Blot and save Mickey!" Gus frowned at this before he asked "Ok, but how do we do that?"

Ah yes, the dreaded how question. Oswald really had no clue on how they could help Mickey and it seemed the rest of the toons in the room had no clue on what they could do to help either. A few minutes of complete silence passed in the room, but finally when the silence was starting to become almost unbearable Ortensia broke the silence. "What if we looked for something that could get rid of the Blot in a book in the Lonesome Manor library? They have a lot of books their so maybe one of the books can tell us something that can help us figure out how to get rid of the Blot." Oswald looked over at Ortensia and smiled slightly before he said "That's a great idea Ortensia. The library might have something that can help us and if the books can't tell us anything then maybe Madame Leona can help us." Oswald then looked over at the animatronics before he asked "Can you guys stay where with Mickey? It would be a good idea to have someone here to watch him just in case he wakes up." The animatronics all looked at each other before they nodded their heads and looked over at Oswald. "You can count on us to watch Mickey for you Oswald." Goofy said with a smile.

Oswald smiled at Goofy before he opened his mouth to say something only to have Ortensia interrupt him by saying "Well, then I guess that means me, Oswald, and Gus will be going to the library." Oswald frowned when he heard this and he quickly sakded "Ortensia, what about the kids? I know Clarbelle is watching them right now, but she can't watch them forever." Ortensia frowned at this and started to think about just who could watch the Bunny children. Just when Ortensia was about to give up on thinking of someone who could watch the kids, Daisy ended up speaking up. "We could watch the kids along with Mickey." Daisy said rather cheerfully. Oswald and Donald both looked at Daisy and said at the exact same time "Say what?" Diasy just smiled and said "We can watch the kids for you Ortensia. I mean, how hard can it be to take care of 420 Rabbit kids?" Donald opened his mouth to protest, but Ortensia ended up stopping him when she gave a little cheer. "Thank you so much you guys. I don't think I'll be able to thank you enough." Ortensia said as she gave teh animatronics a bright smile.

Donald just looked over at Oswald and gave him a look that seemed to cry out 'help me', but Oswald just shrugged his shoulders at the poor robotic duck. It was obvious that the women had already decided everything and Oswald knew there was no changing their mind. It was just best that Donald accept his fate of being a babysitter now then try and fight a losing battle. Donald just sighed and started to grumble under his breath and Oswald could only shack his head slightly. Oswald felt a little bad about dumping the kids on the animatronics to watch, but hey they were the ones who offered. However, that thought did little to stop Oswald from feeling sorry for Donald. That poor duck was going to have his hands full….

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It took a couple of hours for Oswald to go to the Wasteland, pick up the kids, and get them all back to Mickey's house but he was finally able to get them all their by the time the clock struck ten p.m. All of the rabbit children insisted on saying goodbye to Oswald, Ortensia, and Gus. So needless to say, all of the rabbit children where gathered around on Mickey's porch waving goodbye and saying goodbye in their cute kid like way as the animatronics and Pluto watched them from the door. Once the goodbyes where said and Oswald, Ortensia, and Gus got into the cab so that they could finally travel to the Travel Agency so that they could go back to the Wasteland. The Bunny children continued to wave goodbye until the cab finally disappeared from sight.

Once the cab was gone the bunny children all turned and looked at their babysitters who where all standing inside the house in the entrance. "Well, don't just stand there come on in." Donald said as he looked at all of the children. The Bunny children then proceeded to race toward the door and try to get into the house, however something was stopping them. Due to the mass number of Bunny children trying to get inside and thanks to the fact that the door was not exactly very huge the children all ended up getting stuck in the door. The rabbits struggled with each other for awhile before Donald finally lost his cool and yelled out "That's it! Everybody out! Now!"

By some sort of miracle (aka, by the help of Donald's rage), the Bunny Children where somehow able to get themselves unstuck from the door and back outside in a matter of seconds. Once they were out of the door, Goofy started to walk toward the door and outside. "Where are you going Goofy?" Donald asked his temper still raging. "But you said everyone outsid-" Goofy started to say only to have Donald yell "I didn't mean you!" Donald then started to mutter under his breath as he placed his head in his hands. Somehow, Donald had a feeling that this was going to be a long babysitting job…

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**Ok, so that's chapter 2. I will try and get the next chapter out soon so please review and don't flame.**


	3. Chapter 3 Paint and Thinner

**A Link to the Heart Fading from Existence**

**Ch. 3 Paint and Thinner**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Epic Mickey.**

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By the time Oswald, Ortensia, and Gus had gotten back to the Wasteland it was a little past Midnight. It was decided that it was way too late for them to go to the Lonesome Manor library now so they decided to stay in Os Town for the rest of the night and head of for the Lonesome Manor in the morning. Gus would stay in the copy of Mickey's house and Oswald and Ortensia would stay in their own home. They would wake up early in the morning so that they could finally set out for the Lonesome Manor. With the game plan finally set the three toons said goodnight to each other before Oswald and Ortensia went into their house and Gus went into the copy of Mickey's house so that they could all get some sleep. However, what Oswald did not know as he laid his head on his pillow and shut his eyes was that tonight he was going to have a rather interesting dream…..

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Dreams are strange and rather unpredictable things there is no denying it. Once night you can dream that you're eating a cookie the size of an Olympic swimming pool and the next night you can have a dream where you're wondering around an empty town with no clue on where you are or where you're going. Yes, you can end up in some pretty strange places and in some pretty odd situations in dreams and Oswald knew this but that little bit of knowledge did not help in making this particular dream of his any less odd. Oswald remembered closing his eyes as he fell asleep in his own bed only to open his eyes again and realize that he was lying on the floor of some strange workshop.

To be specific Oswald had woken up in front of a fireplace that had a mirror hanging above it just like at Mickey's house. Oswald also noticed a calendar hanging near the mirror, but the writing and the numbers on the calender where backwards. Oswald just got up off the floor and looked at the backwards calendar in confusion before he just shook his head slightly and slowly walked down the hall. The hallway lead the rabbit to a large room and in the middle of the room was a large table with what looked like a miniature of a town laying on it. There was also a staircase that lead up to the next floor, but Oswald was more interested in the miniature then the stairs. However, when Oswald went over to the table, climbed up the chair that was sitting in front of the table, and looked at the miniature he was surprised to see that it was actually a miniature of the Wasteland. Oswald could see each area of the Wasteland was included in the miniature. Oswald had to wonder why there was a miniature of the Wasteland, but this is a dream and when you're dreaming anything can happen. This dream was very odd, but Oswald had a feeling that he had seen nothing yet.

Just when Oswald was about to jump out of the chair and look around the rest of the room he started to hear a noise. Oswald's rabbit ears twitched slightly at the sound of someone walking down what sounded like creaky stairs. Oswald looked over toward the noise only to the shadow of whoever it was that was going down the stairs on the wall. Oswald's mind started to scream at him and tell him that he needed to run or hide or at least do something, but Oswald's feet just would not move. All Oswald could really do was stare at the staircase as whoever it was that was walking down them got closer an closer to where Oswald was. Soon enough the person who had been climbing the staircase reveled themselves. Oswald was surprised to see that the person was a man with a long gray beard, a long blue robe, and a strange hat that was covered in stars and crescent moons.

In the back of Oswald's mind he realized that he had seen quite a lot of pictures of Mickey wearing that same hat back at Mickeyjunk Mountain. The man, who looked a lot like a wizard in Oswald's opinion just looked at Oswald and raised a bushy eyebrow in slight confusion. Oswald just gave the man a week smiled before he said "Hi, I'm sorry for being in your workshop. I'll just show myself out." Oswald was about to jump out of the chair and get away from the man was fast as possible, but he ended up stopping when he heard the man ask "You are Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, correct?" Oswald looked at the wizard in surprise before he said "Yes, I'm Oswald. How do you know who I am and just who are you?" The man just gave Oswald a small smile before he said "I am Yen Sid and I have something to give you."

Oswald was slightly annoyed at the fact that the man did not bother to answer the question on just how he knew Oswald, but that thought was thrown out the window when Oswald heard the wizard say he had something for him. Oswald watched the man move over to a cabinet that was in the corner of the room and opened it up only to pull out a very familiar paintbrush. The wizard walked over to Oswald and held the paintbrush out for Oswald to take. Oswald hesitated slightly before he finally reached out and took the paintbrush from the mysterious wizard. Oswald realized immediately that this was the paintbrush that this was the same paintbrush that Mickey had used when he was in the Wasteland. Oswald had to wonder just why Yen Sid was giving it to him, but he ended up getting his answer when Yen Sid said "I want you to save your brother, Mickey, with this brush."

Oswald's eyes widened slightly before he asked "How do you know about Mickey?" Yen Sid just gave the rabbit a mysterious smile before he said "I think it's time for you to wake up Oswald." Oswald was about to yell at the guy and say that he wanted answers, but before he could really say anything Oswald could feel his eyelids grow heavy and before he knew it he ended up blacking out. The next time Oswald opened his eyes he was laying in bed and not in that strange workshop. Oswald was about to think that the odd dream that he had was just an odd dream and nothing more, but he was proven that the dream was not just a dream when he realized that he was holding something in his hand. Oswald looked down at his hand only to see that he was holding the paintbrush that Yen Sid had given him. It looked like Oswald's dream had not been a dream after all…..

* * *

If you ever try to tell your friends and family that you got a paintbrush from a wizard in a dream, don't be surprised if they give you weird looks. Right now Oswald was struggling to explain how he got the paintbrush from some wizard in a dream to Gus and Ortensia and said toons where just looking at the rabbit as if he was crazy. "So let me get this straight, you got the paintbrush from some blue robbed wizard in a dream?" Gus asked slowly. "And when you woke up you had the paintbrush in your hand?" Ortensia asked after Gus.

Oswald just nodded his head quickly before he said "That's exactly what happened!" Ortensia and Gus just gave each other sidelong glances before Ortensia looked at Oswald and smiled. "I believe you Oswald." Ortensia said gently. Oswald smiled, glade to see that the girl that he loved so much believed him. Oswald then turned his attention over to Gus and asked "Well, what do think?" Gus just crossed his arms and said "I guess I'll believe it…" In all honesty what Gus said just weekly translated into 'I don't believe a word of it, but I'm not going to question it anymore'. Oswald didn't think too much about it, he was just happy that Ortensia believed him. However, right when Oswald thought the dream conversation was done and over with Gus ended up asking a rather good question.

"Do you even know how to use that paintbrush?" Gus asked as he looked at the brush that was in Oswald's hand. Oswald looked at the brush in his hand for about five seconds before he quickly shook his head no. In all honesty Oswald had no clue on how to use the brush. "Maybe you should practice using it first before we go to the library." Ortensia suggested. Oswald nodded slightly before he said "Ok, but where should I practice?" Gus got a thoughtful look on his face for awhile before he smiled slightly and asked "What about the Colosseum in the European boat ride part of the It's A Small World ride? It's a pretty big area and it would be a good place to practice…." Oswald nodded slightly before he said "Ok, the Small World Colosseum it is then." And with that said, the Small World Colosseum was set as their next destination…..

* * *

It took awhile for them to get to the Small World Colosseum thanks to the fact that Ortensia insisted that they don't leave Os Town until they had everything that they would need for their trip. Ortensia ended up packing a book bag full of all sorts of random things. Gus and Oswald did not understand why she had to bring so much stuff with her, but whenever they asked why she was bringing all of those things she would just smile and say "It's best to be prepared. You never know what you might need." Well evidently you need a lot of stuff because Ortensia was only ready to go when she had practically packed away everything but the kitchen sink into her book bag. However, once she was finally done packing they were able to get to the Colosseum relatively fast.

However, once at the Colosseum Oswald ended up learning something that did not make him very happy. What Oswald learned when he got there was the fact that somehow all of the gremlins in who lived in Gremlin Village had gathered to the Colosseum to watch Oswald practice. Oswald wondered just how all of the gremlins knew about him going to the Colosseum, but he had a feeling that Gus told someone about it. He probably told Prescott, the Gremlin who always hung out in Os Town about it and Prescott then told every gremlin in the Wasteland about it. Gus denied saying anything to anyone, but Oswald had to wonder if he was telling the truth or not. Well, regardless of if Gus said anything or not the gremlins where their now and there was not much he could do about it. All Oswald could do was hope he did not mess up to badly in front of the gremlins and in front of his sweetheart Ortensia.

Ortensia had went up into the stands and sat down with the gremlins so that she could watch while Gus stayed with Oswald in the Colosseum. Once in the stands Ortensia just smiled down at him and yelled out "Good luck Oswald!" Oswald just gave her a week smile and a halfhearted wave before he looked over at Gus and asked "Ok, so how do I use this thing?" Gus just shrugged his shoulders before he said "I'm not sure... Mickey was able to figure out how to use the brush on his own so I don't really know what to tell you." Oswald just gave Gus a look and said in a slightly sarcastic tone "Gee, you're a lot of help." Gus just shrugged yet again before he said "Sorry, but if I don't know a lot about the brush there is not much I can really do. I think the only one who really knew how to use that thing was Mickey, but you can't exactly ask him because he's….Well…" Gus stopped the sentence their and looked down sadly.

Oswald could not help but get a sad look on his face too when he herd what Gus said. He knew how the rest of the sentence was going to go and right now Oswald really didn't need Mickey's sad situation bouncing around in his mind. Oswald just shook his head slightly as if to rid himself of the sad thoughts before he looked over at Gus and asked "Did Mickey ever say anything about the brush when you where traveling together in the Wasteland that might help me figure out how to use this thing?" Gus tapped his chin slightly in thought before he said "Well, I do know Mickey said something about imagining the brush spraying paint so maybe it works with a little imagination?" Well, it sounded a little ridiculous, but that was all Oswald had to go on so he decided to try and give this imagination thing a shot. Oswald looked down at the brush and pointed it out in front of him and imagined a stream of paint coming out of the brush. Two seconds after Oswald started to imagine the paint coming out of the brush paint ended up coming out. However, since Oswald was not expecting the paint blast to be so powerful he ended up being blasted off his feet…

**Wham!**

And right into a wall… The small crowed that was watching the little event all winched at the collision. "That had to hurt…" A random gremlin that was sitting near Ortensia murmured. Ortensia stood up from her seat and called out "Oswald are you ok?" Oswald pried himself off the wall before he looked up toward Ortensia and smiled slightly before he called out "I'm ok!"

The truth was Oswald was not ok, slamming into that wall had hurt but he did not want to worry Ortensia. Gus coughed slightly before he said "Do you want to try again or should we stop for the day?" Oswald looked over at Gus and said "No, let's keep practicing." Oswald then looked at the paintbrush that he was holding and imagined the paint coming out of it yet again. Sure enough the paint came flowing out of the brush, but this time he did not get knocked off his feet. Gus nodded slightly before he said "Ok, I think we have the paint part down. Now how about you try and use thinner." Gus then grabbed a barrel that was lying off to the side and dragged it into the middle of the arena. Once the barrel was in the middle of the arena, Gus flew over to another barrel and hid slightly behind it before he said "Try to hit that barrel with thinner. I'll just hide here in case something goes wrong."

Oswald just rolled his eyes slightly at what Gus said, it was nice to know that the gremlin had so much faith in him. Oswald aimed the brush at the barrel and started to imagine a stream of thinner coming out of the brush. Sure enough, thinner came out of the brush and went straight toward the barrel. The second the thinner touched the barrel it ended up disappearing completely from existence. Oswald stopped the thinner and quickly started spraying paint again only to have the barrel appear again. Once the barrel was back Oswald stopped the paint and smirked before he said "I think I am getting the hang of this now." Oswald was about to try and use the thinner again, but he ended up seeing something that ended up making him stop.

A couple of small blue and green orbs of light seemed to appear out of thin air before they quickly flew over to Oswald. Once they had gotten over to Oswald the small little lights flew around him slowly almost as if they were dancing around him. The lights shimmered like fireflies during a summer night and Oswald could not help look at the things in pure amazement. "It looks like you have attracted some Guardians Oswald." Gus said softly as he watched the little lights dance around Oswald. Oswald could not help but remember the last time he had seen the little lights was when Mickey was still in the Wasteland. He remembered how Mickey always had at least one Guardian always flying around him. He also remembered how Mickey would use the Guardians in a lot of his fights against the Blot's army. The memories caused him to smile slightly and Oswald smile grew a bit larger when one of the Guardians landed on his shoulder.

"Well, it looks like the Guardians are going to be helping me out this time." Oswald said softly. Oswald then looked over at Gus and asked "Mind telling me how exactly how I can use the Guardians?" Gus quickly looked away from the flying Guardians and over at Oswald before he nodded quickly and started to go into his Guardian explanation. After having the Guardians explained to him in a bit more detail Oswald started practicing on using the little orbs of light along with practicing how to use the paintbrush. Throe the rather long practice session Oswald ended up learning that the Guardians where quick to follow orders. He just needed to give out the order and the Guardian would follow said order to the best of their abilities.

Oswald was also able to get better at using the brush, although Oswald would be lying if he said that it had been easy. Oswald only stopped practicing when he was finally satisfied with how he was using both the brush and the Guardians. Once he was done practicing Oswald looked up at the Ortensia in the stands and then over to Gus before he said "I think we are ready to head off to the Lonesome Manor library now." Ortensia smiled before she quickly made her way down the stands and to Oswald. Once she had gotten to where Oswald was her smile just seemed to get even bigger before she said "Well come on boys, if we don't leave now we will never get their!" The two boys nodded slightly before they followed her out of the Colosseum. The gremlins who where in the stands quickly called out things like "Good luck" or "Have fun at the Lonesome Manor!" to the three toons as they slowly made their way out of the arena. The three toons only gave quick waves or smiles to the gremlins as they all walked out of the Colosseum with the Guardians quickly trailing after them….

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**Ok, so that's chapter 3. I will try and get the next chapter out as soon as possible so please review and don't flame.**


	4. Chapter 4 Calm Before the Storm

**A Link to the Heart Fading from Existence**

**Ch.4 Calm Before the Storm**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Epic Mickey**

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The Lonesome Manor Library is a very interesting place to go that is something that no one can really deny. With the strange paintings, flying books, and portraits that seem to follow you as you move around the manor it's a very interesting place, but it is also very creepy as well. In all honesty Oswald did not like going to the manor because he always had the feeling that something or someone was watching them when they were in that mansion, but that's to be expected considering the fact that the manor was full of ghosts. Oswald really did not want to go into the manor, but he knew he had to if he wanted to find out how to save Mickey he was going to have to go in there. So all Oswald could really do was try to ignore the creepy being watched feeling and just get in and out of manor as fast as possible.

The second Oswald had gotten into the library Oswald went straight toward the place where Madame Leona was and said "I need your help." Madame Leona seemed to be completely unfazed by Oswald's rather sudden entrance into her library she just smiled at him and said "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit it has been a long time since I last saw you." Madame Leona then moved her gaze from Oswald over to Gus and Ortensia who were standing right behind Oswald. "Gus and Ortensia it has been a long time since I had last seen the two of you as well." Madame Leona then looked back over at Oswald and asked "Now then, why do you need my help?" Oswald sighed before he looked down at the ground and said "Mickey's heart is being taken over by the Blot and we need to find a way to save Mickey before he is taken over. So will you help us?" Madame Leona smiled slightly before she said "When that mouse was here in my library he calmed the spirits, found my books, and fixed my paintings. Mickey helped me out so much when he was here and it would only be right if I helped him in return."

Madame Leona turned her gaze over to Oswald before she said "In a book called 'Black Magic and Potions' you will find a recipe for a potion called the HeartThrob, I believe this potion will be able to help you get rid of the Blot in Mickey's heart. The book is in the first bookcase to the left near the library and before you ask yes you can take the book with you but remember to return it once it has served its purpose." Oswald nodded slightly before he said "Thank you Madame Leona." And with that said Oswald turned right around and went straight toward the bookcase that Madame Leona was talking about, all while Gus and Ortensia followed him. Once at the bookshelf the three toons started to search for the book that they wanted. After searching for a few minutes, Oswald was finally able to find the book that they needed.

Oswald looked at the book cover, only to be rather surprised by who the author of the book was. It seemed the one who wrote the book when by the name of Yin Sid. 'That's the same name as the wizard in my dream…' Oswald thought. Oswald then shook his head slightly before he started to flip through the book, honestly he could think about that later right now he had a book to read and a potion recipe to find. Oswald looked at each page carefully he didn't want to miss finding the potion that he needed, but as he looked at the spells and potions he started to think that he was dealing with a pretty odd book.

Some of the spells and potions in the book where rather normal such as the few healing spells that he had seen and the different types of antidote potions, but then a saw a couple of spells that were not exactly all that friendly in nature. There was a spell that could turn your opponent into stone, a spell that allowed you to summon fireballs, and there was even a rather large variety of poisons concoctions that ranged from week to just downright deadly. Finally after flipping throe what felt like hundreds of pages, Oswald finally found the recipe for the HeartThrob potion. Oswald immediately started to read the page all while Gus and Ortensia read the page from over his shoulder.

_The HeartThrob potion has the ability to allow the user to invade the heart of whoever they want. The user is quite literally put into the heart that the person invades. There are many risks to using this potion and the risks are as followed._

_Risks for user are as followed:_

_-The user may become trapped in the heart that they have invaded._

_-The user may lose their heart in the process of using the potion._

_-The user may experience a brief period of exhaustion after they return from the heart that they have invaded. The user can pass out due to exhaustion, but they will only be passed out for an hour at the most._

_Risks for the one whose heart is being invaded are as followed:_

_-The person whose heart is being invaded will experience some pain. However, how much pain the person feels depends mostly on what the heart invader is doing._

_-The one whose heart is being invaded will have a brief period of exhaustion after the heart invader leaves their heart._

_-The one whose heart is invaded may get a slight fever, but the fever should go away if they rest well and drink plenty of fluids._

_Due to the risks that are involved with using the potion it is suggested that the potion is not used, even if the user is highly skilled in magic. If you must use this potion then please take extreme caution and be ready to accept the danger that comes with using it._

"The user can become trapped in the heart that they have invaded or you can lose your heart in the process? Oswald I don't know if it's a good idea to use this potion…" Ortensia said quietly. Oswald looked up from the book and over to Ortensia before he gave her a week smile. "It is risky, but it looks like it's the only way to save Mickey. Besides Mickey gave up his heart to save me and Gus from the Blot so I would think it's only right that I would do the same and look at it this way, there is no grantee that I'll lose my heart if I use the potion." Oswald said. Ortensia was quite for a few minutes before she asked "There's no other way is their?" Oswald just continued to give her that week smile of his before he answered "No, there isn't…" It was quite for few minutes, but Ortensia finally broke the silence by saying "Well, how do we make this potion?" Oswald blinked a few times before he looked back down at the book. Oswald quickly found the place that he was at last and continued to read all while Gus and Ortensia continued to read the book themselves from over his shoulder.

_To make the potion you must mix together some ingredients. Once the ingredients are all mixed together the potion will be complete and you will only have to drink it for the potion to work its magic. The potion will have a bright gold color that can be compared to that of melted gold, if the potion turns into any color that is not gold that means that you have made a mistake in making the potion. Due to the nature of the potion and how dangerous it is the ingredients and the places where you can find them will not be out right said but will instead be told in riddles. This is mostly to discourage the people who would us the potion recklessly, but if you truly wish to make this potion then you should have no problems with figuring out the riddles. Here are the riddles._

_Riddle one-ingredient #1: Where does magic water flow? Why the place where no one goes. All the lights are still on and you can hear the Disney songs._

Oswald stopped reading once he saw the first riddle. Well, that's just great of course the book could not just tell them the ingredients and where they could find them. It just had to be in riddle didn't it? Oswald sighed slightly before he looked over at Ortensia and Gus and asked "Well, do you guys have any ideas?" Ortensia had a rather thoughtful look on her face as she said "Well, since the riddle mentions magic water I'm guessing that's what we need to get, but I don't know of any area in the Wasteland that no one goes to…" Right after Ortensia said this Gus coughed before he said "I don't know if this is the place that we need to go, but I have heard of an area that most people avoid going to and it would definitely be a place to where you would find water." Oswald and Ortensia both looked at Gus and asked at the exact same time "What have you heard?"

Gus just scratched the back of his head and said "I have heard talk from the other Gremlins about some sort of water park area that goes by the name of River Country. I heard that no one really goes there or lives there, but evidently the electricity is still running and everything. I have never been there myself, but I know that a few of the Gremlins like to go there as a dare because of how creepy it is." Oswald sighed yet again before he said "Well it looks like that's where we are going. Do you know how to get their?" Gus nodded before he said "The projector to River Country is next to the projector that leads to Tortooga in Ventureland." Oswald nodded before he said "Alright then, let's go to River Country!" And with that said the three toons left the library and went on their way to River Country….

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It did not take too long for the three toons to get to River Country, but when they did get their they where rather surprised by what they saw. The projector brought them straight toward the entrance of River Country and from their first glance at the place the toons immediately thought that the park was very eerie. It was evening now and all of the lights where on to light up the park for nighttime. Crows where constantly calling out to each other and the crickets could be heard chirping from practically everywhere. Large green fences that you could not possibly be able to see throe where set up in certain parts of the park and the few buildings that the three toons could see where still in one piece, but they looked so worn and old. There was a sign lying on the ground nearby, but the elements had not been kind to the sign and whatever writing that had been on it had been eroded away. The place looked like it had been abounded and it looked like no one had disturbed the place for who knows how long. However, while the place was obviously abounded and forgotten all of the lights in the place where shinning brightly and Oswald could hear what sounded like music being played in the distance.

It was almost as if the park was still waiting for people to come and play in there once again. The three toons stood frozen in front of the entrance of that park for what felt like forever, they where to busy just taking in everything that they were seeing to really even think about taking a step into that park. However, after about a total of six minutes had passed Ortensia finally started to walk through the entrance and toward one of the small shack like buildings that was located nearby. After two seconds had passed the two boys finally moved from their spot at the entrance and quickly followed after her. The cat just lead them straight toward the small shack before she stopped in front of the building and slowly pushed the door open. The door gave a loud creaking sound and swung open, but once the three toons had gotten inside and looked around they started to wish that the door had not opened at all. The inside of the building was rather dark so the toons ended up having to use the glowing light that the Guardians made just so they could see what they were doing, they also left the door open so that what sunlight was left outside could stream in and give them even more light. The building itself was filled with trash of all shapes and sizes, their where papers, plastic cups, and a couple broken bits of electrical equipment laying all around on the floor.

There was a table sitting in a corner of the room and it what looked like some sort of diorama, most likely of the park, sitting on it. A majority of the things on the diorama had been broken off and the only things that were on it where a couple of mini trees that had their fake leaves stripped off. There was also a very randomly placed doll head lying on the table and the doll seemed to watch them as they moved about the building. After poking around the shed for a few minutes, Oswald finally noticed that lying on the floor amongst the trash was an employee recognition plaque. The plaque was covered in names of the many hard working employees that had once worked in the park, but now the plaque and the pride that came with having your name on it was left to rot amongst the garbage. It was kind of sad to see it laying there and Oswald knew right then and there that he was not going to like exploring this place one bit. "I was hoping that we could find a map of the place in here…." Ortensia murmured as she walked over to Oswald and stood beside him before she too stood their and stared at the plaque. Oswald just looked over at her and gave her a small smile before he kissed her cheek and said "I don't think we will find anything that will help us in here." The two of them heard someone clear their voice only to turn around and see Gus floating near the open door. "Since we can't find anything of use here should we just try to see if we can't find the way around on our own?" Gus asked.

Oswald nodded before he took Ortensia's hand into his own and squeezed it lightly before he said "Yeah, I think we will have to explore it on our own." And with that said the three toons quickly made their way out of the sad shack and out into the park. Once outside they followed an old path that was located on the outer most area of the park and started to circle the area. As they looked around they kept their eyes peeled for anything that would look like magic water, but they had to admit that was pretty hard to do. The whole place was rather big and thanks to the rather harsh conditions of the park it made it hard for them to know where to look first. They past by broken barrels, signs that had been almost completely covered in the surrounding vegetation, they even found a bridge that went out into the lake water but the bridge had a lot of holes in it and some of the boards had been ripped off the bridge making it almost impossible for them to walk on. Oswald tried using paint on it, but it did absolutely nothing. Gus could just fly over the bridge, but they decided against it and just continued moving on. Soon enough they ended up at the swimming hole, but they where slightly sadden to see that this area looked just as bad (and maybe even worse) then the rest of the park.

They slowly made their way over to a building that had a little pier that had a bridge connected to it and walk up onto the pier so that they could get a better look around. The water was murky and looked more like one giant swamp then the swimming hole that it had once been. Oswald could see an old inner tube floating near the bridge and he could see a lot of other things floating around in the murky water. There were small wooden structures set out amongst the water in different areas of the swampy swimming hole. They had things like tire swings and ropes that you where meant to climb attached to them and Oswald could imagine that once upon a time this place was probably filled with people swimming, laughing, and having an all around good time but now this place was only filled with the sounds of crickets, crows, and ever so faint music playing over and over again in the background. This place was so surreal for the three toons, it really was.

Now granted the Wasteland was filled with rides and places that had long since been abounded, but they never looked like this place. After the Blot had been defeated and Mickey had gone back to the Real World everything in the Wasteland had been repaired and now once broken and worn down rides and places looked brand new. However this place looked like it had been abounded for ages and it was very strange to see a place like this slowly be taken over by nature. Almost all of the places in Wasteland had at least one toon living there or hanging out there so it was strange to see such a lonely and abounded place like this. Oswald shook his head as if to rid himself of his thoughts before took a step forward on the bridge. The bridge creaked loudly when Oswald stepped on it and that immediately attracted the attention of Gus and Ortensia. "Oswald what are you doing? Don't go out on that bridge!" Ortensia called. "Why not? I trust it to get me to the other side." Oswald said calmly.

"I don't trust it!" Ortensia and Gus said at the exact same time. The two toons looked at each other for a few seconds before they both looked back over at Oswald. "Oswald if that bridge breaks and you fall in I don't know if you will come back out of the water." Gus said as he turned his gaze over to the swampy water. Oswald could not help but had to agree with Gus, the water looked anything but pleasant and he had no clue on just what could be lurking in the water. However, there was a chance that the magic water that they needed could be at the end of the bridge and if that was the case Oswald would take the risk of falling into the swamp. "The magic water that we need might be on the other side of the bridge." Oswald said. "But there is a chance that it is not across the bridge. Why don't you use the Guardians to find out where the magic water is first before you go rushing out onto the bridge?" Ortensia asked.

Oswald looked over at the Guardians asked "Can you show me where the magic water is?" A tint flew away from the other two Guardians that where flying around Oswald and quickly started going in the opposite direction of the bridge and straight to what was probably the very middle of the park all while leaving a trail of bright blue light for them to follow. Ortensia sighed in relief before she looked over at Oswald and smiled. "It looks like the magic water is not across the bridge." Ortensia said. Oswald nodded before said "Yeah, but we should follow after the tint before he lose it." Gus and Ortensia nodded before they chased after the rabbit as he followed the tint, and as they ran Ortensia mentally thanked her lucky stars that they didn't have to cross that rotten old bridge. As they ran after the tint the music that they had been constantly hearing playing slightly in the background started to grow louder and louder until the music was now blasting at full volume. The extremely loud banjo music that played was so loud that it was heard for the three toons to even think. "The music is really loud!" Oswald shouted over music. "What!" Gus and Ortensia shouted back. "I said the music is really loud!" Oswald shouted even louder. "Why is there not a crowd?" Gus shouted. Oswald sighed in exasperation before he murmured "Never mind…." Yet another shout of "What!" was heard from his two companions and right when Oswald heard them say that he ended up having to resist the ever increasing urge to do a facepalm.

After awhile, they finally got away from the loud music and the tint lead them to a couple of drinking fountains that where located near the restrooms. The tint flew around the fountains slowly obviously to show that the magic water was right there. Oswald blinked a few times before he looked over at Ortensia and Gus and asked "Does anyone have anything that can hold water?" Ortensia immediately went for her backpack and pulled out a water canteen. She dumped the water out of the canteen and held it out for Oswald to take. Oswald took the canteen from Ortensia and gave her a small smile before he walked over to the fountain and turned the handle so that he could get some water. Once the handle was turned the water immediately started coming out and much to everyone's relief the water was fresh and clear. The tint flew around the stream of water quickly before it flew back over to the other two Guardians that where flying around Oswald.

Oswald smiled slightly at the Guardians before he turned his attention back to the water. In all honesty, the water did not look all that magical but if the Guardians said this was the magic water then this was the magic water. Once the canteen was completely filled Oswald put the cap back on before he handed the canteen back to Ortensia. "Well, I guess we can leave now…" Oswald said once Ortensia had put the canteen back into her backpack. Gus and Ortensia nodded before they followed Oswald back to the projector. They were able to get to the projector rather fast thanks to the fact that the water fountains where located relatively close to the entrance of the park. Once they were at the projector Oswald took one last look at River Country. "I hope we never have to come back here again." Oswald murmured as he gazed at the abounded water park. "Agreed…" Gus and Ortensia said as they also gazed at the park. The park was so eerie that the toons where more than happy to be able to leave. The three toons then jumped into the projector so they could go to Ventureland and finally leave the abounded park behind…..

* * *

Once the three toons had gotten to Ventureland, Ortensia immediately pulled the spell book out of her backpack. "You guys ready for the next riddle?" Ortensia asked as she started to flip throe the book. "As ready as we'll ever be…" Gus said as he crossed his arms. Ortensia nodded before she cleared her throat and started to read. "Cleverly concealed by nature, my radiance is but a fleeting existence." Ortensia read out loud.

Gus and Oswald both looked at Ortensia for a few seconds before they both crossed their arms and said at the exact same time "I got nothing." Ortensia got a thoughtful look on her face after she heard the say this before she said "Well, the thing that we are looking for is concealed by nature so I would think that would mean the Jungle. As for the fleeting existence part I think they are talking about flowers. Flowers are very lovely, but they don't last long." Oswald was quite for few minutes before he shrugged his shoulders and said "Well, that's all we really have for now so I say we go with it. We can go to the Jungle and see if the Guardians can lead us to what we need. If they can't we can just try somewhere else." And with that said Oswald quickly lead his small group to the Jungle…

* * *

When Oswald and company had gotten to the Jungle they had quickly spotted a toon standing in found of a rock wall staring at a small hole that was in said wall. A little confused as to why he was just staring at a wall they decided to talk to the toon to find out just what he was doing. "Excuse me, but can we talk to for a minute?" Gus asked once they had gotten over to where the toon was standing. The toon turned to look at them all before his eyes landed on Gus. The toons eyes widened slightly before he said "Gus Gremlin? It's been a long time since I last saw you." At first Gus looked confused, but after a few seconds had past he started to he started to smile. "Botanist Darvin, the last time I saw you was when Mickey helped you paint the plants back into existence in Ventureland. What are you doing out here?" Gus asked.

Darvin frowned slightly before he looked back over at the hole in the rock wall before he said "I heard that the hole in this wall leads to another area in the Jungle where a rare white flower called the Moonlight Flower grows. However, the hole is way too small for someone like me to enter." Gus seemed to think for a few minutes before he looked over at Oswald and asked "Oswald can you ask one of your Guardians to lead us to the radiant thing from the riddle." Oswald blinked a couple of times in confusion before he shrugged his shoulders and did as Gus asked. The second after Oswald asked the single turp that was in the group of three Guardians immediately flew away from the group and up to the hole in the wall before it flew right through the wall. "I guess that means the Moonlight Flower is the answer to the second riddle." Gus said as he looked at the green light path that the turp had created. "What are you talking about?" Darvin asked in a confused tone of voice.

Oswald just looked over at the confused toon before he said "Don't worry about it. All you need to know is that we are going to get some of those flowers and I'll make sure to grab a few for you too." Darvin smiled slightly before he asked "You would really do that?" Oswald smiled before he said "Sure we would, we have to get some of those flowers too so we might as well give you some as too." Oswald then proceeded to climb up the rocky wall so he could finally get to the flowers. "Oswald be careful!" Ortensia called up to him. "Don't worry, I'll be careful!" Oswald called back to her. Once Oswald had gotten to the hole in the wall he was able to see right through to the other side and the view he saw was simply beautiful. On the other side was a large clearing that was full of flowers.

However, the most beautiful flower that was in the field where the pure white flowers that where in the very middle of the field. Nighttime had fallen not too long ago so the moon was out and it seemed like the moonlight was causing the white flowers to have a soft glow. The turp that Oswald had sent out to guide him was slowly flying around above the white flowers and a couple of fireflies seemed to have joined the turp as they also flew around the white flowers. Oswald smiled slightly before he climbed through the hole and slowly made his way over to the white flowers. Oswald bent down and started to gently pick the flowers while the turp flew back over to the other two Guardians that where flying around Oswald. Once Oswald had enough flowers to make two small bouquets he turned around and made his way back to his companions and Darvin. It took a bit of time for Oswald to get back down the rocky wall considering the fact that he had to carry all of those flowers, but he was able to do it and once Oswald had made it to the ground again he held the two bouquets out to Darvin and Ortensia. "One bouquet for the botanist and one bouquet for the lovely lady." Oswald said with a smile. Ortensia giggled slightly before she took the bouquet from Oswald and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. Darvin took the other bouquet before he gave Oswald a grateful smile.

"Thank you so much for getting some of the flowers for me, this will help me a whole lot in my research on the flower." Darvin said. "Hey, I'm glad to be of help." Oswald replied. Darvin just continued to smile as he gave the Oswald yet another tank you before he said his farewells and left the area by using the projector that was nearby. Once Darvin was gone Ortensia looked down at the bouquet of flowers for a few seconds before she looked up and over at Gus and Oswald and she asked "Is it just me or has it been rather easy for us to get these items?" Oswald nodded slightly before he smiled and said "Yeah it has been easy, but the Wasteland is rather peaceful now so it's to be expected. Besides look at it this way, the easier it is to find the things we need the faster we can help Mickey" Ortensia smiled at this, but Gus seemed to be bothered by something.

"It's probably just me, but I have a feeling that things are going to get harder for us from now on." Gus said slowly. Ortensia and Oswald both looked at Gus with a confused look before they both asked "What do you mean?" Gus just shrugged his shoulders at this before he said "I don't know it's just a feeling I get, call it Gremlin's intuition." Oswald just shook his head and said "Your probably just imagining things, everything has been going well so far so we have had no trouble so why would we have trouble now?" Gus nodded slowly before he said "I guess you're right, but I still can't shack this feeling that something bad is going to happen…." Ortensia just smiled as Gus before she said "You're probably just tired it is late at night now and we did get up pretty early today." She then looked over at Oswald and asked "Should we go ahead and go back to Os Town? It's late and I don't think we will be able to find the rest of the things that we need if we are tired." Oswald nodded before he said "Yeah, let's go back to Os Town. We can continue on our item finding quest in the morning." And with that said the three toons quickly made their way over to the projector so that they could make their trip back to Os Town….

* * *

While things in the Wasteland where restively calm the same could be said for Mickey's house back in the Real World, or at least everything was calm right now anyway. It was nighttime there in the Real World just as it was in the Wasteland, and everything was quite. Mickey's room was rather silent with the only sound in the room being the soft gentle breathing of the passed out mouse. Mickey was still dripping ink and most of the ink was floating up into the air before it would disappear from existence. However, some of the ink that was dripping off of Mickey was not floating up into the air. No instead this ink was dripping off of Mickey's arm and right onto the floor.

The ink had created a rather large puddle and it just seemed to be growing bigger by the second. At first one might think nothing of it, it was just an ink puddle and it's not like it could really do anything but stain the carpet. However, when the puddle grew to be about as big as Mickey himself something started happening. A black inky form seemed to emerge from the ink puddle and the form had the exact same shape of Mickey. Once the Mickey shaped from had grown to be about the same size as Mickey, it opened its eyes only to revel glowing green eyes that looked so very similar to the glowing eyes that the Blot had. The Mickey look alike looked over at the real Mickey and grinned an evil little grin before it quickly looked over at the mirror that was hanging above the fireplace.

The inky mouse quickly ran over to the fireplace and climbed up it. Once it was on top of the fireplace it looked at the mirror only to have the mirror show it the rather peaceful scene of Mean Street at night. The inky shadow of a mouse just grinned at the sight of the empty street before it went though the mirror and into Mean Street. Once the ink mouse was in Mean Street the mirror behind it changed from showing Mickey's bedroom to just showing a reflection of the Mickey look alike. The inky mouse just continued to grin as it ran from the mirror and down the street. "Oswald you better look out because Shadow Mickey is here I'm going to make sure that you don't save your brother." The newly dubbed Shadow Mickey yelled out before he filled the street with his insane laughter…..

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**Info Time!**

**River Country: River Country was Disney's first water park. It opened on June 20, 1976 and ceased operations on November 2, 2001. On January 20, 2005 Disney announced that River Country would remain closed permanently. I have never gone their myself, but I have seen a lot of pictures of the place and I have seen a lot of videos of the place on Youtube. Strangely enough, even though the park has been closed for a long time the lights still come on when it's dark, the drinking fountains still work, and the music is still playing right up to this day. The bridge that Gus and Ortensia did not want Oswald to cross is the Barrel Bridge and the bridge that the toons could not really pass was the bridge on the Cypress Point Nature Trail. The nature trail bridge will lead you to a gazebo while I'm pretty sure the Barrel Bridge went towards the water slides and the white water rapids. I can't really tell where the Barrel Bridge goes because I only saw it in a video and they did not even try to cross that thing in the video because it was way too dangerous. **

**Shadow Mickey: Shadow Mickey makes his first appearance in this chapter and trust me when I say he is going to appear in this fanfic a lot. Shadow Mickey is a lot like fake Shadow Blot (the one you fight on Mickeyjunk Mountain) in the fact that he is a part of the Blot but he is not the Blot. Shadow Mickey is essentially his own person (or mouse).**

**Anyway, this was chapter 4. I will try and get the next chapter out as soon as possible so please review and don't flame. **


	5. Chapter 5 Shadow Mickey

**A Link to the Heart Fading from Existence**

**Ch.5 Shadow Mickey**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Epic Mickey.**

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Today's a new day for Oswald and friends and with the new day comes a bunch of riddles for the three of them to solve. The three toons where standing in front of the fountain in Os Town and they were waiting for Oswald to finally find the page of the next riddle. After flipping through the pages for a few minutes Oswald finally found the page he was looking for. "Here's the next riddle." Oswald cleared his thought before he started to read. "Bound to the fire breathing beast, we serve as his defense." Oswald read out loud before he looked at Gus and Ortensia and asked "So you do guys have any ideas as to what this riddle could be talking about." Gus and Ortensia both got rather thoughtful looks on their faces before Gus finally said "Well when I think of a fire breathing best I think of a dragon..."

Ortensia then quickly added "As for what can serve as a dragon's defense I would think it would be the dragon's scales. The scales of a dragon do protect it after all." Oswald nodded his head before he said "That sounds right to me. So does anyone know where we can find a dragon?" Ortensia immediately smiled at this question before she said "I think I know of a dragon that could help us. Oswald do you remember Elliott?" Oswald smiled a little at the question before he started to think of Elliot. Elliot was a friendly dragon with orange colored hair, green scales, and small pink wings. Elliot was a very kind if not a slightly mischievous and fun loving dragon. "Yeah I remember him, he used to live and work in Dark Beauty Castle with a couple of other toons. He was a really nice guy, but he left the castle along with everyone else once the thinner accident happened." Oswald said.

Ortensia nodded her head before she said "Yes, but I hear we has moved back to the castle. We can ask him to give us a scale to use in the potion. I'm sure Elliott won't mind helping us out." Oswald grinned a little and said "That's a great idea Ortensia. Man, if the rest of the ingredient quest is this easy then we will have Mickey back up on his feet in no time. Now come on let's go to Dark Beauty Castle! "The three toons smiled as they quickly started to make their way to Dark Beauty Castle, completely unaware of the danger that they would get into once there….

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Dark Beauty Castle truly was a beautiful castle. With its beautiful stain glass windows, it's large and majestic throne room, and its giant ball room it was easy to say that the castle really was a lovely place. However, the most beautiful part of the castle had to be its rather large garden. The garden was full of all types of flowers like roses, violets, and all sorts of other types of flowers. Add on to the fact that the garden was very peaceful and the fact that the castle was in a place where it was worm all the time and you basically had a little piece of paradise right there in front of you. Elliot the dragon love the garden and he spent all his time there and today was no exception. Elliot was out in the garden as usual lying in the grass as the sun shined down on him.

Elliot was in a very good mood and he was just about to doze off, but the sound of laughter ended up causing him to become rather wide awake. Elliot looked over toward the sound of the laughter only to see a very strange toon sitting on one of the benches nearby. This toon had glowing yellowish green eyes and he looked a little bit like the very famous Mickey Mouse. However, there were things about this toon that made him look completely different from Mickey. This toon looked like he was completely made out of ink and he had some ink dripping off of him. This mouse like toon also had a rather eerie grin on his face and his grin sent shivers down Elliot's spin. The mouse like toon's smile just seemed to grow bigger when he saw that Elliot was now looking at him.

The freaky inky toon got up from his seat on the bench and slowly walked toward Elliot all while keeping that eerie grin on his face. Once the ink mouse was standing right in front of Elliot he started to chuckle again and Elliot could see the mouse's thin whip like tail was waving around slowly. "So you're the fire breathing beast, huh?" The mouse said in a rather nonchalantly. "Who are you?" Elliot asked as he gazed down at the inky toon. The mouse's grin just seemed to grow larger and it looked a lot like a smile that a madman would wear. "I'm the Wasteland's worst nightmare." The glowing eyed mouse replied and before Elliot could say a word he felt something hit him hard in the back of the head and his whole entre world turned black…..

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The trip to Dark Beauty castle had been rather short, but the search for Elliot was turning out to be rather long. They looked all over the castle and they had yet to see neither hide nor hair of the friendly dragon. No one who worked in the castle had seen the dragon, but a lot of toons suggested that they look in the garden for the dragon. With nothing to go on the three toons decided to take the advice and look in the garden. However after searching the garden from top to bottom they had yet to find the elusive dragon. After searching the garden for about two hours (and searching the castle for about six hours, hey it's a big place) the three toons finally sat down on the grass in the very middle of the garden so they could discuss just where the large dragon. "So he's not in the castle and he's not in the garden so just where could Elliot be?" Ortensia asked. Gus just shrugged at the question before he said "Maybe he left to visit a friend or something." Oswald sighed a little before he said "Maybe we should move on to the next ingredient and try to get the dragon scale later." Ortensia and Oswald where about to agree with that plan, but before they could even say a world they started to hear someone laugh. "Awww, what's wrong you can't find what you need?" A mysterious voice asked. The three toons looked toward the source of the noise only to see a surprising sight. "Mickey?" Ortensia whispered in shock. Standing a little ways away from them was a inky mouse who did look a lot like Mickey. The mouse just smiled when he heard what Ortensia said before he gave a mock bow and said "I'm Shadow Mickey and it is a pleasure to finally meet Oswald and company face to face."

Shadow Mickey smile just grew a bit larger before he added to his greeting "And I'm here to make sure you don't save Mickey." Oswald immediately started to glare at Shadow Mickey before he yelled out "Where did you come from and why do you want to stop us from saving Mickey!" Shadow Mickey just continued to smile before he said "That's not important right now. Right now you guys are looking for your friend right? Well, if that's the case then why don't I reunite you with your dragon friend?" Shadow Mickey then snapped his fingers and yelled out "Come on Elliot you have some friends who want to see you!" A loud roar could be heard from above and before Oswald and his friends could even blink a large dragon landed down unto the ground beside Shadow Mickey. The dragon seemed to be made completely of black ink much like Shadow Mickey was and it had large amounts of ink dribbling off of it. The dragon had cold glowing yellow eyes that seemed to be filled with hatred. The dragon had large sharp white teeth and ink was dribbling from its mouth like it was drool. "What did you do to Elliot?" Oswald shouted.

Shadow Mickey just laughed before he said "I just brought him over to the Blot's side that's all! Now Elliot go and get rid of our annoying friends!" The dragon let out a loud roar before it breathed out a fire breath. Ortensia and Gus where able to quickly able get out of the way and they ran off to an area of the Garden where they would be a safe distance from the battle. Oswald was also able to dodge the attack, but he did not run off to another part of the Garden like Gus and Ortensia had. "Oswald don't use thinner on Elliot! He may be a blot like monster now, but he is still there underneath all that ink!" Ortensia shouted. Oswald dogged yet another fire attack before he shouted back "Ok, but just how am I supposed to save him?" Gus just shouted "Use paint on him!" Oswald quickly pulled his paintbrush out and sprayed a stream of paint at the dragon in hopes that it would do something. However, those hopes were dashed when the paint just slid right off of the dragon. The dragon glared at Oswald before he swung around and hit him with his tail. The force of the hit caused Oswald to go flying into a tree before he fell to his knees. Shadow Mickey laughed in pure amusement before he called out "That had to hurt!" Oswald slowly stood back up and glared over at the inky mouse before he turned his attention back to the dragon. The dragon started to flap his wings before it flew up into the air and started to release on flame ball after another. Oswald was able to avoid each fire ball with grace and he would release one stream of paint after another at the dragon only to have the paint slide off of it every time.

Gus watched the battle for awhile before he shouted out "Oswald, try spraying the paint into the dragon's mouth!" Oswald did not turn to look at Gus nor did he say anything to what the gremlin said, he just tightened his grip on the paint brush and waited for the ink dragon to open his mouth. Eventually the inky dragon landed and opened his mouth and the second the dragon did that Oswald quickly started to spray paint into his mouth. After getting a good amount of paint into its system the inky dragon closed its mouth and stumbled back a little. Some of the ink started to drip off its body only to revel shiny green scales, but there was still a good amount of ink that was clinging onto the poor dragon. Oswald grinned a little, happy to see that his attacks where finally doing something, before he continued his attack. Shadow Mickey was no longer laughing and a deep frown had now taken its place on his face. However, Shadow Mickey did nothing to try and change the battle he just continue to watch as more and more ink disappeared from the dragon's body. Eventually after fighting for what felt like hours, the ink finally completely disappeared from the Elliot and Elliot quickly collapsed to the ground. Oswald smiled a little before he looked over at Shadow Mickey and said "It looks like I rescued Elliot from being your slave." Shadow Mickey just scowled at the rabbit before he yelled out "So you did, but don't think you have won yet rabbit! We will meet again!" And with that said Shadow Mickey quickly climbed up a couple of vines that where growing on the garden's high wall before he quickly disappeared from sight. Gus and Ortensia quickly made their way over to where Oswald was standing before they looked over at the wall that Shadow Mickey had escaped over. "Looks like Shadow Mickey escaped." Gus said. Oswald just nodded to this before he said "Yeah, but I know we will see him again soon."

All of the sudden the three toons heard what sounded like groaning coming from over where Elliot had collapsed. They looked over toward the dragon only to see him open his eyes and sit up. "What happened?" Elliot asked as he looked around the garden, only to see that the garden had been damaged. There were a few trees that had been broken during the fight, some bushes had been burnt to a crisp, and a couple of flower beds had been complexly destroyed. "What happened to the garden?" The dragon shouted out as he saw the full extent of the damage on the poor garden. "You mean you don't remember? You where turned into some blot monster and Oswald had to fight you to turn you back to normal." Ortensia said. Elliot seemed to get a thoughtful look on his face before he said "I remember seeing that Shadow Mickey guy in the Garden, but everything gets fuzzy after that…" Elliot then looked over at Oswald and smiled before he said "Oswald you saved me right? I feel like I should reward you but I don't have anything that I could give you." Oswald shook his head and smiled at the dragon before he said "Don't worry big guy there is something you can give us if you really want to thank us. I know this is kind of a strange request, but could you give us one of your scales?" Elliot smiled a little before he broke off a piece of scale and gave it to Oswald.

"Here you go. May I also suggest you stay at the castle before you go rushing off somewhere else? It is getting late and I kind of want to ask you just what is going on." Elliot was right the sun was setting and the moon was starting to rise, if they left now it would probably be midnight before they finally go where they needed to go. "Sure, we will stay the night and you do deserve an explanation." Oswald said. The rest of the day went by like a blur and Oswald was quick to go the bed. Once in bed Oswald quickly fell asleep hoping to have a good dream. Unfortunately for Oswald he would not be having sweet dreams tonight…..

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When Oswald opened his eyes he was quickly aware that he was dreaming, but this dream was turning out to be rather weird. He was completely surrounded by darkness and there was only one thing in the entire area. Standing a few feet away in front of him was a large set of scales had what looked like little cages instead of the usual pan like things that most scales would have. In one cage was a glowing golden dollar sign and in the other cage was a large pink heart that was glowing with a soft light. Both sides of the scale where evenly balanced and nether sides where tipping in the slightest. "Well, it's about time you got here." A mysterious voice said. Immediately Shadow Mickey appeared out of nowhere beside the scales much in the same fashion that a ghost would. Oswald glared at the shadow like mouse, but the mouse did not seem to pay any attention to the glare. "You know Oswald I have heard many things about you and I have become rather curious about you."

The mouse then started to grin before he said "So why don't we just find out about you, hmm?" Shadow Mickey then pointed at the scales and explained "This is the Scales of Truth and we shall be using them tonight. I will be asking you a series of questions, if you tell the truth the dollar sign will brake and if you tell a lie it will be the heart that shatters. I will also be giving a couple hypothetical situations as well." The mouse then grinned a little before he said "You can choose not to play this game if you are too much of a chicken…" Oswald puffed his chest out slightly and glared at the mouse before he shouted "I'm not a chicken! Go ahead and ask your questions I have nothing to hide!" Shadow Mickey continued to smile before he said "Very well, then let's begin. First question, are you really going to complete this journey to find the ingredients to save Mickey?" Oswald just crossed his arms and said "Of course I am!' The scale immediately started to tip from side to side before the cage floor of the dollar sign opened up and the dollar sign went crashing to the ground. Shadow Mickey frowned at this and Oswald just gave the mouse a smug grin. The opened cage door quickly closed and another dollar sign ended up replacing it. "Alright then, how about I give you situation? Mickey is surrounded by five Slobbers and he seems to be having a hard time fighting them. You yourself have been injured, but you are the only one who could help him. Would you help him or will you let him handle it himself?" Oswald just smirked a little before he said "I would help Mickey." Again the scales started to tip and yet again the dollar sign when crashing to the floor. Shadow Mickey gritted his teeth a little before he said "Fine, next question. Are you still jealous of Mickey and the fact that he is so famous?"

Oswald just glared at the mouse before he said "O-of course I'm not jealous of Mickey anymore." The scales started to tip and before anyone could so much as take a breath the cage door under the heart opened up. The heart fell to the floor and broke into a thousand pieces. Shadow Mickey just smiled a bit at this before he said "It looks like you still have a bit of jealousy in your heart." Shadow Mickey's smile grew a bit large before he said "Here's another question for you. If you could somehow make it so that you could be Disney's number one mascot at the cost of Mickey losing his fame and maybe even his heart would you take the chance?" Oswald just clenched his fists and yelled out "I would not take it!" Again the scales started to tip and the heart in the cage was dropped only to have it slam down into the ground with a loud crash. Shadow Mickey grinned a little before he said "That's a lie, you would take that chance but I can't blame you. Mickey took your fame away from you and he caused you to lose your heart. I hear losing your heart is a rather painful process it would only be right if Mickey experienced the pain that he cause you right?" Oswald said nothing to this he just glared at the mouse with hate filled eyes. "Next question, do you hate Mickey?" Oswald just clenched his fists even tighter before he yelled out "I don't hate my brother!"

Again the heart went crashing down to the floor and Shadow Mickey let loose a loud laugh. "You say you don't hate him, but deep down you really hate Mickey. He stole everything from you, he took Walt's love for you away and he caused you and your family to end up in the Wasteland. Honestly I think you have every right to hate him." Oswald's glare just grew a bit stronger as he shouted out "Shut up! You don't know anything!" Shadow Mickey just smiled at the rabbit before he said "You say I don't know anything, but I think I am learning quite a lot through this little question and answer game of ours." Shadow Mickey then crossed his arms before he said "Last situation question. Let's say that by magic of some sort you can go back in time and stop your brother from ever becoming successful. You can kill him, get rid of him and make it so that his fame never existed. Walt would still love you and the whole world would still know who you are right up to this day as a result of getting rid of Mickey. So would you kill Mickey, would you destroy your own little brother?" Oswald shook his head before he shouted "I would not kill my little brother!" Shadow Mickey laughed a little before he said "I see you say you would not kill your brother. Well then let's ask the Scales of Truth to be sure!" The scales started to tip from side to side before they came to a stop.

Almost in slow motion the cage door under the heart opened up and the heart fell from the cage before it crashed onto the ground like fragile glass. The loud crashing sound that the heart made seemed to echo around the area and Oswald could just look at the shattered heart with wide eyes. Shadow Mickey laughed sounding a lot like an insane madman before he said "The truth is you would kill your own little brother! My and I thought the big brother was supposed to protect their little brother!" Oswald immediately stuttered out "I-I would never kill him!" Shadow Mickey laughed yet again before he said "Really? According to what I just found out you are still jealous of Mickey and you would not hesitate to cause him to lose his own heart so you could have his fame. Death is only slightly worse than losing a heart for a cartoon character. You have every reason to want him dead and gone!" Shadow Mickey laughed yet again before he said "Know this Oswald in the end it was your choice, and now you have to live with it." Oswald looked at the inky mouse with wide eyes and Shadow Mickey just laughed and laughed. Suddenly Oswald felt himself get dizzy and before he knew it he blacked out. Shadow Mickey watched Oswald collapse right where he stood before the rabbit disappeared from view. The rabbit was just waking up so Shadow Mickey was not bothered to see the rabbit fade away. "Silly Rabbit the scales may be called the Scales of Truth, but they are not very truthful." Shadow Mickey whispered before he too started to fade away…

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**Tiger Phantom-Spicer luv xxx: Yeah, I'm posting this fanfic on my DA account as well. My account is Hetalia-England so it will be up there.**

**Anyway, info time!**

**Elliot the dragon: Elliot is from the Disney 1977 action/animated musical film. I have never seen the film and I honestly didn't know about it until I stumbled upon some people talking about it on a Epic Mickey chat room. I needed a dragon and Elliot seemed like a good one to choose so that's why I used him. I also thought about using the Reluctant Dragon, but I ended up sticking with Elliot.**

**Shadow Mickey: Shadow Mickey has the ability to turn a toon into his minion with ink just like Mickey could make some of the Blot monsters into friends with paint. However like Mickey's paint, Shadow mickey will have to use a lot ink on a toon if it is very strong or very big. This is what he did with Elliot. **

**The Scales of Truth: This is actually ever so loosely based off of a character from the 3D CGI animated television series (and video game) 'Gregory's Horror Show'. I'm going to give you heads up now to anyone who looks this show (or its game) up, it is kind of dark but it is pretty interesting to say the least. The Scales of Truth is based of the character (and my favorite character from 'Gregory's Horror Show') Judgment Boy. Judgment Boy is an anthromorpheic set of scales. He weighs the soul of whoever he encounters by presenting the person with a hypothetical situation where the person must choose between love and money (such as whether to go sign a life-changing business contract or visit the person's boyfriend/girlfriend in the hospital who just got hit by a car).**

**I like Judgment Boy mostly because he is not good or bad he just shows you the choices that you would really make. That and I think it's kind of cute how he moves around singing "Do you know, who I am? They call me Judgment Boy!" or if you're playing the game "Do you know my name~? Judgement!', but maybe this is just a sign that I'm weird. Anyway, I liked the concept of having Oswald being judged in a bad dream and I really wanted to use it. However, Judgment Boy is not a Disney character so I can't really use him, but I can use the next best thing which is the The Scales of Truth. However, The Scales of Truth are different from Judgement Boy in the fact that they are not completely truthful. Shadow Mickey can make the scales do whatever he wants. The scales told the truth about some things, but it was also lying on a lot of things. I will leave you to figure out what was the truth and what was the lie...**


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